Attendees of the workshop listening to the facilitator
Wellness is an active process of becoming aware and making choices towards a healthy and fulfilling life. There are however many health-related risks that most people might not be aware of. To embrace employee wellness, the University of Venda (Univen) held an Employee Health and Wellness Champion Development workshop. The workshop was held from 19-21 June 2019 at 2Ten Hotel under the theme ‘Embracing who you are and who you can become!’.
The Aim of this workshop was to provide staff with the knowledge, skills, behaviours, and an attitude that will enable an individual to champion employee health and wellness.
According to the Workshop facilitator, Mr Alan Brand who is an Employee Wellness Consultant and Specialist Trainer from Positive Alive, the objectives of the workshop were to enable employees to understand and identify the concept of employee health and wellness; to assist them when applying the principle underlying critical thinking to create a paradigm shift enabling the employees to focus on a range of health and wellness topics and issues including chronic and non-communicable diseases affecting wellness at work; these wellness champions will share their knowledge with colleagues in order to create a healthier workplace. The workshop has further assisted attendees to be able to apply the principles of time management and strategic planning. “Your role is now to go out there and advise people about health-related matters because people are making wrong choices out there,” he said.
The three-day interactive workshop was targeted at Peer Educators, Champions of wellness, Employees, Unit Managers and Supervisors. Twenty-five (25) Univen staff members attended this workshop. They were given projects to work on individually and in groups.
When welcoming workshop attendees, the Director Human Resources (HR), Mrs Uanda Ndou told the participants that, employees are her best assets, she needs them at work healthy (physically, emotionally, financially), because that is when they are most productive. She pleaded with the wellness champions to partner with her in changing the mindset that the Employee Health and Wellness Programme (EHWP) is for employees with problems. The EHWP is designed to promote holistic wellness and work-life balance.
Workshop participants posing for a group photo
Workshop participants listening to the facilitator, Mr Alan Brand.
Below are photos of staff members working in groups:
Issued by:
Department of Communications & Marketing
University of Venda
Tel: (015) 962 8525
Date: 25 June 2019
